Supporting Member States to strengthen access to palliative care

Palliative care is an important part of universal health coverage and the continuum of care for everyone. Currently, there is a significant unmet need for palliative care services in the WHO European Region, and these services are frequently undervalued in health systems.

WHO/Europe is committed to supporting countries to strengthen and improve access to palliative care. Pain and symptom management are an integral part of palliative care and improving access to essential medicines is important. Building these capacities has increasing importance considering the rising rates of noncommunicable diseases, ageing populations, and the growing number of people with unmet palliative care needs.

Country support is usually based on collaboration agreements between WHO/Europe and ministries of health based on mutually recognized priorities including:

• health system policies that integrate palliative care services into the structure and financing of national health care systems at all levels of care;
• policies for strengthening and expanding human resources, including the training of existing health professionals, embedding palliative care into the core curricula of all new health professionals, as well as educating volunteers and the public; and
• a medicines policy, which ensures access and availability of essential medicines for managing symptoms, in particular opioid analgesics for the relief of pain and respiratory distress.